Good onscreen chemistry between Jena Malone and Pablo Schreiber lifts the filmmaker’s debut feature out of traps set by occasionally mundane dialogue and predictable complications.

| Jul 28, 2023

It’s Doyle’s grounded true-to-life perspective that gives “Lorelei” its pulse.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 17, 2022

Malone and Schreiber, two of our most interesting actors, are more than up to the task of carrying the film. Their white-hot chemistry goes a long way, but their own peculiarities as performers prove to be a perfect match as well.

| Original Score: 8/10 | May 10, 2022

"Lorelei" is sensitively made, and Doyle achieves a tone that is both compassionate and clear-eyed.

| Nov 1, 2021

This film is the first of many I hope to see from filmmaker Sabrina Doyle. The less than stellar script is easily ignored as the audience is pulled in by Pablo Schreiber best in a career performance.

| Original Score: 8 | Oct 30, 2021

Fumblingly, Lorelei manages to escape predictability, with Doyle allowing everyone their dignity as she goes for an upbeat finale.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 9, 2021

In the end Lorelei emerges as a flawed but deeply felt piece of humanistic cinema, heart-tugging without sticky sentimentality.

| Original Score: B | Aug 13, 2021

Lorelei's moving depiction of hope, affection and its firm belief in second, third, maybe even fourth chances in life are enough to make your heart soar.

| Original Score: 9/10 | Aug 10, 2021

It's a well-acted portrait of forgiveness, trust, and how emotional stakes can be high when people with troubled pasts are given a chance at redemption ... [It's] a meaningful story showing that family is not what you're born into but what you make of it.

| Aug 8, 2021

Lorelei could easily have fallen into stereotypes, but director Sabrina Doyle avoids poverty porn to provide an authentic portrait of people struggling to keep their heads above water.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 5, 2021

Jena Malone and Pablo Schreiber do exceptional work in Sabrina Doyle's "Lorelei."

| Original Score: 2.5/4.0 | Aug 3, 2021

Regrets and yearnings for second chances haunt the hardscrabble lovers of Lorelei, a character study with natural performances that rise above its sometimes sluggish pace.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Aug 3, 2021

Written and directed by Sabrina Doyle ... never belittles or downplays the plight of her characters, letting them shine and evolve in an organic manner.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jul 31, 2021

Deeply felt performances help elevate this blue-collar romantic melodrama above its conventional relationship dynamics.

| Jul 31, 2021

Doyle keeps things low-key, focusing on credible character dynamics (and very good performances) rather than dramatic contrivance, with a background of rural Pacific Northwest economic hardship and opioid trade keeping things grounded.

| Jul 30, 2021

This shaggy small-town drama, painted in shades of gray drizzle, comes across a bit too much like a frothy soap opera, but the vivid atmosphere and honest commitment to the characters keep it afloat.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 30, 2021

Career high work from Malone and Schreiber. Lost souls who reconnect.

| Original Score: A- | Jul 30, 2021

This isn't about one way of living or the other. Lorelei is about finding love, allowing oneself to be loved again, and what it means to be a good human.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 30, 2021

Even the beats of Lorelei that feel manufactured connect because of the tenderness of the filmmaking and performances.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 30, 2021

But watching everyone fumble their way forward is the great joy of Lorelei, an often effective, sometimes flawed, debut feature from writer/director Sabrina Doyle.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 30, 2021